Val d'Orcia Travel Guide

The Val d’Orcia is a ravishing rural area running into le Crete Senesi, but within sight of hulking Monte Amiata. For many, this is the loveliest area in Tuscany, with Unesco-listed countryside, perfect hilltop villages, remote abbeys and evocative castles. Foodies, walkers and spa-lovers will take to the thermal spas, rustic inns, myriad wine trails and meditative walks. The Val d’Orcia represents quintessential Tuscany, with clusters of cypresses, ribbons of plane trees, vineyards on the slopes, and farms perched on limestone ridges. But it was not this alone that won the area Unesco World Heritage status – it’s also about the harmony between the Tuscans and their landscape, shaped by their mellow way of life. Once depopulated, these medieval villages are now enjoying a belated renaissance. San Quirico d’Orcia may be the gateway to the area but Montalcino, Pienza and Montepulciano also make delightful stepping-stones to scenery landscaped since time immemorial.

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Essential Val d'Orcia Travel Guide Information

Top Ten Things to Do - Val d'Orcia

These are our Top Ten Things to Do, from gentle drives to soporific spas, from strolls in moody hamlets to medieval abbeys and the vintage Nature Train – all set in Unesco-listed countryside.

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Eating & Drinking

The charming Val d’Orcia villages abound in family-run inns and bars in atmospheric settings. The best inns offer Slow Food ingredients, such as prosciutto di cinta senese (cured meat made from an acorn-snuffling, wild-boar-like breed of Sienese pig). Salami are on the menu everywhere, maybe flavoured with wild fennel. This is Sienese territory so expect the stubby pasta known as pici, in every kind of sauce, including game. In autumn, mushroom and chestnut dishes are on the menu, a reminder that the fertile slopes of Monte Amiata are not far away. As for dessert, look out for ricciarelli, Sienese biscuits, tasty, lozenge-shaped almond and candied orange-peel biscuits, a variant on macaroons. These may be served with Vin Santo, Tuscany’s celebrated dessert wine.

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Shopping, Parking & Getting Around

The Val d’Orcia is a foodie hotspot so shopping often focuses on edible produce, including speciality foodstuffs that can be taken home or, more likely, devoured in your villa. Expect to be waylaid by tempting small cheese shops, wine-producers and enoteche (wine bars that may double up as wine shops) especially around Pienza. Stock up on local Rosso d’Orcia to quaff overlooking your Tuscan pool, as well as virtually local Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and full-bodied Bruncello di Montalcino. Speciality food shops often follow the seasons in displaying the best mushrooms (funghi porcini), chestnuts and truffles, along with saffron, olive oil and local cheeses. Allow yourself to be tempted by pecorino (sheep’s milk) cheese, whether sold by Pienza cheesemakers or even local Sardinian peasants.

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